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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

25mm Scruby Mexicans

Having never painted any of the Scruby figures, I dipped my toe into the Old School waters and ordered two dozen figures from HistoriFig.com to give them a try. Ordered were enough figures to field two, 12 figure Mexican battalions. The figures arrived quickly and figure clean-up was minimal. The first thing I noticed was that detail found on more modern figures is lacking or very slight on the Scruby figures. Some detail will have to be painted on.

Scruby 10th Line Regiment

I have been enjoying Regimental Fire and Fury games using a Mexican-American War variant at Terry's on a semi-regular basis. Well, he holds the games with great regularity. It is I who attend on a "semi" regular basis.

As I have noted before, Terry uses his old, 25mm (or one inch)Scrubycollection from the mid 1970s for his Mexican-American War gaming. His collection is painted in what I would classify as an Old School, Toy Soldier style as seen in the photo below.

Scruby figures from Mexican-American War line

Notice in the photo above that Terry fields commanders in a larger size than the one inch, Scubys. That way, the "Big Men" can immediately be identified on the field of battle.At our last game, I mentioned that I picked up a few Scrubys and was entertaining the notion of painting up a couple battalions of Mexicans. After looking through his Mexican-American War books, Terry picked out two Mexican battalions that he has yet to field. So, these figures will muster out as the San Blas militia and the 10th Line.

The first battalion off the painting desk is the 10th Line Regiment. The 10th wore a dark blue jacket with purple facings. In the photos below, the dark blue and purple are very similar so no dynamic contrast is present. The figures remain unbased in order to confirm Terry's basing scheme. A matt finish was applied as a top coat rather than my usual Dullcote finish. The matt finish produces a sheen and provides an Old School feel, doesn't it?

The second battalion, San Blas, is seeing action on the painting desk.

Nice looking figures. I've always wondered how they scale with 1/72 plastics. That is also an interesting observation about matte versus dullcote. I have Liquitex Matte, which is shiny, and Vallejo Matte that is quite dull. I am now trying to use Liquitex on the metal bits and Vallejo on all other surfaces.

I just saw this, and am a bit nonplussed. I also have a mid-70's Scruby MAW set-up, also painted glossy old school, and also use larger-sized commanders! The painted figures in the photos look EXACTLY like mine. [cue the Twilight Zone music...]